"Tubular Bells" - Classic or Dud?

looks like I also ripped 'Moonlight Shadow' & 'Pictures in the Dark', good

Oldfield had expressed many times his displeasure at Virgin's lack of promotion of his works, and Amarok might have been his revenge: a completely unmarketable album that still showcased his talent as a composer and performer. Oldfield did attempt to circumvent Virgin and create publicity for the album by offering a prize of £1000 of his own money to the first person to find the "secret message" hidden within it,[1] although the competition received little coverage and consequently its impact on sales was negligible. The message was actually a piece of Morse code found 48 minutes into the piece and spelling out "FUCK OFF RB", a direct statement to Virgin chief Richard Branson.

And featuring Janet Brown as the "Voice Of Margaret Thatcher"????

Clearly it is urgent and key that I hear this.

James Brown and Margaret Thatcher both represent Evil at its worst, so I kind of like the connection. :)

Just listening to this again now and I really like it and fuiud etc.

I've got a free copy of this lying around somewhere. It came with a newspaper (think it was the Daily Mail. eek, don't know how that happened!)

Might give it a listen, I've never heard it before, apart from the famous bit in The Exorcist. Worth a go?

Yes definitely. There's a lot more to it than just the riff from The Exorcist. It's actually a lot of fun, not po-faced or new-agey at all. Also kind of unbelievable that it would be given away free with the DM, but they gave away a Prince album, so wvs.

TB 3 is very new agey though ..

not heard TB 2 ..

Well I don't actually like any other Mike Oldfield stuff apart from the original TB.

Hergest Ridge > Tubular Bells

Ommadawn > both of them

Apart from the beginning and end of side one, Dud.

the vocals on side two are ace

Ah yeah, and the growly vocals and the rock-out bit in the middle of side two. But I find the rest of it kinda... I dunno... dull?

I agree to some extent, TB has a lot of good parts (notably the bits you mentioned) but I do find it noodly and dull as an album. There are long stretches that feel to me like demos, just kinda doodly chord progressions that go on forever. But I got on a lot better with his other albums, Hergst Ridge and Ommadawn are both gorgeous and way more memorable to me than Tubular Bells, Incantations is repetitive as hell but very enjoyable, and Platinum is really good fun if nothing else.